Hinshelwood: I want to help drive us to wins

Main Club Sponsor

TICKETS

SHOP

Nick Szczepanik

2025-01-27T06:00+00:00

Jack Hinshelwood made his return to action after a near three-month absence. 📷 by Paul Hazlewood.

One of the few bright spots in the 1-0 home defeat by Everton was Jack Hinshelwood’s return to action after a knee injury.

The 19-year-old Sussex-born midfielder replaced Yasin Ayari after 75 minutes to make his first appearance since the 2-1 home victory over Manchester City in November. He slotted into midfield and was immediately demanding the ball and looking to push the team forward.

“I feel back to how I did before the injury,” he said. “So now it’s just about getting more minutes under my belt and kicking on for the rest of the season because we’ve got a big part of the season still to play.

Photo 1/25

Everton left the south coast with all three points after Iliman Ndiaye’s 42nd-minute penalty strike. Albion pressed and created chances in the second half, but were unable to breach a resolute Toffee's defence. Club photographers Paul Hazlewood and James Boardman were at the Amex to capture all the action.

“It was a difficult injury. It seemed very small at first and we tried to push it but at the end of the day we just had to give it time and we did that. Now it’s good and I’m hoping to stay with the boys until the end of the season.”

Injuries have hit the Albion squad hard this season but at least Jack was not alone during his recovery. “We’ve had a few in the treatment room unfortunately but we’re all chomping at the bit to get back out there and pushing each other every day,” he said. “It’s not nice being injured but it makes it easier when you’ve got people alongside you.

“These things happen in football and it seems they have happened to us a bit more than other clubs. But we’ve got a great squad here and we can always put a good team out and team that is going to fight and show passion with the fans and now I want to drive that even more.”

That squad depth means that Jack accepts that he may have a battle on his hands to regain his starting place. “There’s competition for places everywhere but I’ve always said that I don’t care where I play, I just want to be out on that pitch wherever the gaffer puts me.

“It’s nice to be back involved with the boys and contributing on the pitch but it ultimately ended in disappointment with the result (against Everton). I think we can take positives from how we played, we just lacked a little cutting edge. We have got to do more in the final third to break teams down and find solutions.

“In the first half we could have done a little more to get the crowd on our side, to give the game a bit of energy, and that will be something we look to try to do when we next play at home. The crowd here can make the difference and we didn’t utilise that. In the first half we need to come out firing from the start.

“Now we have to go away (to Forest) next weekend and fight and do the ugly side of the game. Everybody knows we are good with the ball, but at the end of the day it’s about the passion, the belief that we can win the game and do something with our season.”